Links and Thoughts on the Playoffs

by Geoff Young on Oct 11, 2001

Apologies for the sporadic updates. Four-hour computer classes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night; in-laws in town. I can barely think. Of course, that won’t stop me from spewing. ;-)

A few links:

Okay, next order of business: Big thanks to Jay-Dell Mah of AtThePlate.com fame for plugging my site. If you haven’t been to over to AtThePlate, I highly recommend you do so asap. Jay does a great job of covering minor-leaguers all year long. An excellent resource.

Playoffs

Hard to get into it too much when your team doesn’t make it. Again. Not that I’m complaining about the Padres’ season. But I do find myself more rooting against, rather than for, teams. I’d just as soon not see the Astros or Diamondbacks go to the World Series, mainly because of their managers. Larry Dierker for not pitching to Barry Bonds and almost costing his team a shot at the playoffs (does anyone else appreciate the irony of the Astros being beat because Dierker broke character and let his guy pitch to Chipper Jones in the first game?). Bob Brenly because there’s no crying in baseball. Although I must confess, I almost felt bad for him when Miguel Batista went into ultra brain lock last night. Almost.

But I could even live with Houston or Arizona making it to the World Series. The Yankees, on the other hand, are another matter altogether. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even hate them anymore; I’m just mostly indifferent, to the point where I generally won’t even watch a game on TV if they’re playing.

Jeffrey Maier, Richie Garcia. Disgraceful, yes; but not really the Yankees’ fault. Broadcasters apologizing to viewers and the Yankees for not providing a more worthy opponent than the Padres in 1998; again, not the Yankees’ fault. But combined, enough of a reason not to watch them on TV. Maybe with the volume off. Or in the ninth inning, like last night, when I did get to hear Tim McCarver explain that Jason “2.65 ERA” Isringhausen had a shaky year and that the playoffs were a different animal, or some such nonsense. David Justice, strikeout swinging; Scott Brosius, weak fly to right; Alfonso Soriano, strikeout swinging (and it wasn’t close). Yup, a different animal it is. Woof!

On the (somewhat) bright side, it was like watching the Padres back in June. Woody Williams (gotta love him) shut down the Diamondbacks and outpitched Randy Johnson to steal a game in Arizona and even the series. How sweet was that? Then it was Sterling Hitchcock and Jay Witasick helping the Yankees lose to Oakland. Awesome.

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